Pacific Palisades, CA
The Riviera Country Club
Los Angeles Athletic Club executive Frank Garbutt sought a golf property away from downtown and settled on a rocky Santa Monica canyon. Land negotiations and financing took almost three years.1
- Location
- Pacific Palisades, CA
- Course
- 18 holes · par 71
- Original architect
- George C. Thomas Jr.
- Club website
- Visit website
A country retreat for Los Angeles golfers
Riviera opened on June 24, 1927, with architect George C. Thomas hitting the first drive. The clubhouse followed in 1928, helping establish the Club’s social life alongside its golf.1
The course
Follow each course for its scorecard, design history, and sources.
Championships
Results and dates 7 editions
PGA Championship
-
Hal Sutton
โ
-
Steve Elkington
โ
NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship
-
Thomas Pieters
U.S. Amateur
-
Doc Redman
โ
U.S. Open
-
Ben Hogan
โ
U.S. Senior Open
-
Hale Irwin
U.S. Women's Open
-
Nelly Korda
โ
Continue through the archive
Follow the course and the people behind it.
Sources and editorial notes11 references
Sources for this story
- The Riv: As Nearly Perfect as Man Could Make It Southern California Golf Association / FORE
History and course description.
Consulted 2026-09-21
Record sources10 references
- Club mark source
- USGA Women's Open Champions and Championship Results The official champions table records the 2026 winner and site. Recorded site text follows that table; no canonical Club or Course identity is inferred. Explicit date span: www.uswomensopen.com
- USGA: 2024 U.S. Amateur Record Book Printed/PDF page 11, 2017 result row. Doc Redman def. Doug Ghim, 37 holes. Match margins and extra-hole lengths are not stroke totals. Actual dates from the retrospective result table.
- NCAA: 2025 Division I Mens Golf Championships Records Book Official NCAA team and individual championship records, PDF pages5-9 and39. Separate team/individual awards; NCAA chronology starts1939, not the pre1939 intercollegiate family. Dates remain unasserted except where printed in Houston PDF page14 for1982.
- PGA Tour: U.S. Senior Open verified results PGA Tour 2015 Champions media guide, PDF page 213 / printed page 212, year row establishes a completed championship and named winner. No event dates are inferred from advertised schedules. Host-club evidence: www.usga.org.
- USGA: Host States and Clubs, 1895 to Present (as of October 13, 2025) Gold club identity reviewed against the source host entry Riviera C.C., Pacific Palisades (3), 1998 Senior Open. Exact physical course and round scope remain unresolved; no single-course inference is made.
- 2026 PGA Championship Media Guide The official Media Guide directly enumerates the 77th playing, champion, site, and its year-page date span. The recorded venue and champion preserve the official PGA Championship History entry’s published text.
- Riviera Country Club: owner tournament archive The owner tournament archive lists Hal Sutton in 1983 and Steve Elkington in 1995 at Riviera. Its English translation labels the event US Professional Golf Championship; the PGA official Guide independently confirms those PGA Championship years and winners. The continuing Riviera course is the physical venue; no unchanged routing is asserted.
- 2026 USGA Championships Media Guide - U.S. Open The official 2026 USGA Championship Record Book directly enumerates the completed 1948 Championship, champion, explicit date span, and site in Championship Results: 1895 to 2025. The recorded champion and site preserve the higher-resolution register text. The current official U.S. Open Champions table independently confirms the year, champion, and site.
- Riviera official Club history The reviewed physical-course opening and primary course history establish this continuing course, separately from Club founding, earlier sites, later renovations and alternate routings. The official history distinguishes founding in 1926, course opening in 1927 and clubhouse completion in 1928. This correction preserves the existing legacy architect text and typed credits unchanged; it does not newly verify every name in the legacy text. Host evidence is also preserved in the adjacent course ledger and USGA record book. No unchanged hole routing or all-round usage is asserted.